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Opportunities and Challenges for the 21st Century: Search For New Paradigm

Opportunities & Challenges for the 21st Century: Need for a New Paradigm

At the Holiday Inn Dulles Airporton September 14-15, 2013

If you were going to design a system to deliver quality, innovative higher education to the whole world, how would you do it?

How can we configure a sustainable global economy that generates full employment and equitable incomes for all?

Can you conceive of a system of global governance capable of implementing necessary measures to promote the security, welfare and well-being of all humanity?

What changes are needed in our thinking processes to evolve effective solutions to pressing global challenges?

These are a few of the questions raised and discussed during the World Academy’s recent conferences at the International Centre for Theoretical Physics in Trieste, the United Nations in Geneva, and the Library of Alexandria in Egypt. The Washington DC roundtable and two other meetings in Ottawa and SF Bay Area during September 2013 were intended to further develop new concepts and strategies as part of WAAS’s program to evolve a new paradigm for global development.

Scope

The Washington Roundtable addressed the following fundamental questions in an interrelated manner:

Economy & Employment: How can global food security, full employment and abolition of poverty be achieved within a decade?

Energy & Ecology: How can global living standards be raised to middle class levels without depleting or destroying the environment or depriving future generations of the capacity to sustain these achievements?

Human Capital – Education, Health & Welfare: How can global levels of education and public health be raised to OECD level?

Money & Finance: How can the necessary financial resources be generated and mobilized to achieve the goals described in the first three questions?

Security: How can we permanently eliminate war and WMD that threaten to destroy all other development achievements?

Global Governance: How can we design a system of global governance capable of implementing necessary measures to achieve the other five goals for the welfare and well-being of all?

Format

The roundtable included exercises to answer the following questions:

What are the most significant paradigm changes that have impacted on global society in the past millennium? How have they altered the functioning of society?

What are the deep drivers most likely to impact on global society in the coming decade? What will be their most likely effect on the unfolding future?

What institutional changes are most essential for emergence of a new paradigm?

What changes are needed in theoretical concepts in the social sciences to support a new paradigm?

What changes in social values are essential to unpin a new paradigm?

What fundamental changes in our way of thinking and knowing are needed for full emergence of a new paradigm?

What are the most positive steps that can be taken now to prepare the way for a new paradigm?

What role can be played by pioneering individuals in ushering in a new paradigm?

Opportunities & Challenges for the 21st Century: Need for a New Paradigm

The World Academy recently launched an initiative to bring together like-minded organizations and individuals to examine the root causes of the multiple challenges confronting humanity today and formulate a comprehensive strategy for addressing them. Its central premise is that viable, effective solutions can be found to meet the entire spectrum of economic, ecological, political and social challenges by formulation of an integrated perspective, comprehensive strategy and detailed policy framework attuned to the realities, needs and emerging opportunities of the 21st century. WAAS recently conducted an e-seminar, a conference co-organized with the UN in Geneva and a workshop at Library of Alexandria. This paper served as a concept note for meetings in North America in Fall 2013.

The world faces unprecedented challenges. Expanding opportunities are emerging side by side with intensifying problems. A proliferation of money, technology, education, trade and communication links is fueling ever more rapid global development. The growing global capacity to meet human needs has come face to face with insurmountable difficulties. Persistent poverty co-exists side by side with unprecedented prosperity. Rising levels of inequality and unemployment are spreading discontent and social unrest at a time when social welfare nets are overstrained by an aging population. Economic growth is depleting the world’s natural resource base at an alarming rate, while threatening long term catastrophic changes in climate. The competition for scarce resources is aggravating nationalist competition at a time when international cooperation is essential for coping with common global challenges. Globalization is breaking down the barriers insulating national economies, making states increasingly vulnerable to destabilizing impacts from beyond national borders. Proliferation of nuclear and other weapons poses new threats to national and regional security. Humanity seems driven by mutually exclusive, contradictory goals leading to apparently insoluble problems.

These multiple challenges share common attributes: They all transcend narrow disciplinary boundaries. They are interrelated and interdependent and defy solution by partial, sectoral approaches. They are all global in nature and cannot be fully addressed without coordinated actions by the international community. Approaches to resolving these challenges are subject to conflicting claims, priorities and interests. Viewed as a whole and in relation to one another, they present to humanity a nexus of interconnected problems of unparalleled complexity.

Quest for a New Paradigm

Each of these global issues is a subject of on-going analysis by leading organizations around the world. Many strategies have been formulated and projected for dealing with each of them individually in a piecemeal manner, often at the expense of the others. Solutions to ecological problems usually involve economic tradeoffs that neglect the irrepressible rising aspirations and expectations of developing societies and are also unacceptable to most prosperous nations. Efforts to balance budget deficits and control inflation appear to be in conflict with efforts to stimulate growth and generate sufficient employment opportunities for all job seekers. Investments in security typically neglect the destabilizing impact of rising levels of unemployment and inequality on social stability. Managing ever growing global financial flows, arms trade and other essential aspects of global rule of law is undermined by reluctance of national governments to cede authority to international institutions.

The lack of significant progress on addressing these issues in recent years has serious raised doubts about the collective capacity of the human community to effectively address them. There is presently no consensus as to whether real, effective solutions are possible to meet the full spectrum of global challenges and what those solutions should be. Is there any way in which apparently mutually contradictory goals of prosperity, security, sustainability and social justice can all be realized? If so, what is lacking?

Frustrated idealists and cynical pragmatists frequently cite absence of leadership, vested interests, conspiracies of the rich and powerful, and lack of political will among the principal obstacles to coherent policy and effective action. But the skepticism, cynicism and failure to act have deeper intellectual roots. Current thinking on these issues has failed to present a clear alternative to addressing the totality of the challenges and their complex interrelationships. The public has yet to be convinced that there are viable solutions that do not involve unacceptable sacrifices. Decision-makers are yet to be convinced that there is a comprehensive policy framework that can be instituted within a democratic context. Some believe the only solution is to wait until natural catastrophe or social revolution compels leaders to desperate measures.

The root cause of the current paralysis lies in the fundamental conceptions and perceptions which govern global society today. Prevailing theory and conventional wisdom stand in direct opposition to effective action. Outmoded economic dogma is used to support unbridled financial speculation, unsustainable depletion of resources and growing inequalities. Concepts of competitive security and balance of power are used to justify the prevailing security environment. An international legal system predicated on a dated conception of national sovereignty is applied to sustain an undemocratic system of global governance. Without challenging these conceptions, solutions will continue to evade us.

Historical Precedents

History offers precedents for radical change. Usually it occurs in the form of violent revolution in the face of intractable vested interests that resist dilution of their power, as in Revolutionary France and Czarist Russia. Occasionally it has been ushered in by far-sighted leaders who recognized the urgent need for rapid social evolution to preempt the possibility of violent revolution. England sought to avoid a repetition of the bloodshed that wiped out the French aristocracy by opening up to the prospering middle class a greater share of political power and social respectability. It did so again when it became the first of the imperial powers to systematically dismantle its global empire with the granting of independence to India in 1947, which was quickly followed by freedom for more than 50 other subject nations.

After fighting two horrendous world wars, the great powers felt compelled to take unprecedented steps to found the UNO as a buttress against the prospect of an annihilating conflagration between nuclear superpowers. Since then major conflict has been largely transferred from the battle field to the conference table. Similarly, after centuries of incessant warfare, perennially warring European powers took the first steps toward founding a new European Union that has come to make war in Europe unthinkable. In an unprecedented action, Gorbachev dissolved the Soviet Empire as well as the authoritarian power structure of the USSR from within, ending the Cold War and dissolving the barriers between East and West in the process. The combination of these three evolutionary changes has been remarkable. Between 1950 and 2010, annual war casualties are estimated to have dropped from 500,000 to 30,000 annually.(1) Since 1988 high intensity wars that kill at least 1000 people a year have declined by 78%.(2)

Abraham Lincoln led a silent social revolution during the closing days of the Civil War when he delayed the armistice while exerting every power at his disposal to compel a reluctant Congress to adopt the 13th Amendment abolishing slavery. Had he not done so, the return of the southern states to participation in the government might have postponed the emancipation of the blacks by half a century or more.

Another US President, Franklin Roosevelt, performed a similar deed in the wake of the US banking panic of 1932 when he pushed through radical reform of the banking system, erecting the safeguards that protected the economy from a single banking crisis for more than seven decades. Crisis returned only when the wall of protection he erected was dismantled under pressure from aggressive banks eager to exploit the opportunities of globalization free from restraining influence of regulation and even commonsense. It was almost unthinkable at the time to imagine that the world’s leading proponent of free enterprise should introduce radical socialist policies. Yet during the following two years FDR pushed even further by ushering in the New Deal, a radical reformulation of public policy to promote social security in a country previously resistant to all government-sponsored welfare measures. Had he not died prematurely before the end of the war, he would have capped his revolutionary program with a new bill of economic rights, which included the right to employment.

The challenges confronting humanity today are as formidable and threatening as any or all of these earlier challenges combined. At the same time the opportunities available to humanity to meet the needs of all human beings have never been greater. Both the compulsions of eminent danger and the prospects for unprecedented progress constitute powerful incentives and enabling conditions for unparalleled actions with potentially momentous consequences.

Characteristics of the Existing Paradigm

Ideas and values underlie all our thought and action. The world we know today is a natural consequence of ideas and values formulated in the past, adopted over time and still prevalent in spite of increasing challenges to their validity, fairness and relevance. The existing paradigm of global development is based on a set of spurious assumptions, premises and principles which may have had some utility in the past but now represent serious impediments to global social, economic and political progress. There are numerous reasons why the present paradigm fails to provide optimal solutions.

The current paradigm is based on outdated and naïve economic theories and assumptions, such as the infallibility of free enterprise, which ignores the obvious fact that unregulated markets, like other networks, are neither free nor fair, for they invariably become skewed in favor of early adapter or the most powerful. It is based on measures of economic value that consider expenditure on arms exports, war and environmental catastrophes of equal value to those on education, health care and human security. It is based on a narrowly defined notion of economic efficiency that completely neglects the wider efficiency of the society of which economy is but a part. A society with 20 or 50% youth unemployment does not qualify as efficient by any rational considerations, for it is a society that is squandering its most precious and perishable resource and sowing seeds for future revolution. It is based on economic doctrines more appropriate to an industrial economy at a time when services represent three-quarters of all economic activity and more than 60% of all employment.

The current paradigm is also based on outdated concepts regarding national and global governance. In countries around the world rule by money power, plutocracy, masquerades as representative democracy. It supports an undemocratic system of global power sharing established more than sixty years ago that is grossly out of tune with current day realities. It is founded on a narrow conception of national sovereignty that – regardless of the actual form of national government – subordinates the legitimate rights of individual human beings and the collective rights of the human community to that of national governments acting on behalf of special interests and power groups. It upholds the right of some nations to special privileges unmatched by any commensurate responsibilities. It sanctions the production, possession and possibly even the use of weapons that violate the humanitarian rights of all humanity and endanger the global environment.

Comprehensive Solutions are Possible

An impartial, open-minded assessment makes it evident that viable solutions can be formulated to address all of these challenges, but that they can only be found by looking beyond the prevailing framework of values, ideas, strategies, policies, and institutions on which current solutions are based. The global economy is capable of producing sufficient goods and services to eradicate poverty and meet the needs of all human beings. Global society possesses or can develop the capacity to provide education and adequate health care to all its citizens. The very fact that so many human wants remain unfulfilled while more than a billion people are in search of work reflects the superabundance of human resources available to address unmet needs. Regulatory and technological solutions do exist to mitigate climate change and augment water resources. The world is afloat with money – more than $200 trillion in global financial assets. If properly invested and allocated, they would be more than sufficient to generate employment opportunities and adequate incomes for all. Shifting the tax and incentive bias which favors technology-intensive capital investment to favor human capital intensive investments instead would radically alter global employment prospects. Pricing natural resources at their replacement cost rather than cost of extraction could safeguard the interests of future generations while providing incentives for more efficient utilization and substitution. The eradication of war and abolition of weapons of mass destruction are an achievable goal, provided an alternative framework is established to ensure the security of all nations.

Solutions do exist or can be formulated, provided we are willing to ask some fundamental questions that challenge prevailing dogma. To cite a single example, financial markets originally developed as an adjunct to the real economy designed to pool capital for investments that meet human needs and generate employment. Today financial markets have become divorced from that original purpose and are left free to act in ways that directly undermine the effective functioning of the world economy. Current policy regards the right to free speculation by the wealthy as more fundamental than the right of every human being to gainful employment and economic survival. A punitive tax on speculative financial transactions is just one of many feasible policy measures that could redirect tens of trillions of dollars into essential investments to create sufficient jobs for youth and the elderly, rapidly raise global living standards, reduce mortality rates, spread education, replace climate disruptive with renewable energy production, extract drinking water from the oceans and thereby eliminate the underlying sources of frustration and unrest that threaten social stability.

Characteristics of a New Paradigm

What the world most urgently needs is fresh thinking to formulate a new intellectual paradigm with the following characteristics:

It fully comprehends the interrelationships and interdependence of all dimensions of global society and social development.

Its goal is to optimize human welfare and well-being for all human beings.

It recognizes that universal human values are not merely inspiring ideals. These values are the only viable basis on which sustainable progress for humanity is achievable.

It gives central importance to the full development and utilization of Human Capital as the driving force and Social Capital as the most essential enabling technology for rapid social evolution.

Ideas have an enormous power to change the world. The new paradigm would have to be based on a new set of ideas and new principles for their application. Foremost among them must be the central aim of ensuring the security and promoting the full and equitable development of all human beings. Society is an organization, an advanced network, with unlimited power to promote human welfare. To be effective it must effectively reconcile the values of freedom and equality, the rights of the individual with the rights of collective. Education needs to be recognized as the prime instrument of conscious social evolution. Therefore highest priority must be placed on raising levels of educational globally to the highest possible level. Development is the result of social, political and legal processes. It cannot be achieved simply by more economic growth or by adoption of ever new technologies, while ignoring the need for wider social and political changes.

With regard to economy, the new paradigm must be based on the realization that money, markets and technology are human creations intended to serve, not dominate or enslave, humanity. It must recognize that human capital is the most precious of all resources, a resource of virtually unlimited creative potential, and gives highest priority to the full development and free creative expression of human capacities. Economic value must reflect real contribution to human welfare. Economic systems must be founded on the principle that freedom and regulation go hand in hand, freedom for individual action and regulation to ensure the fairness and equity of social systems. As economy is a subset of society intended to promote social welfare. Financial markets must be so regulated to support the real economy. Employment needs to be recognized as a fundamental right, the economic equivalent of the right to vote in democracy. The new paradigm needs to recognize that the shift from a scarcity based, industrial economy to a knowledge-based service economy with untold productive power requires a reconceptualization of economic value and new measures of economic performance. It needs to understand money as a social organization that capitalizes trust capable of multiplying the prosperity of all, rather than as a scarce material resource or power to be hoarded and applied for the benefit of a few.

With regard to governance, international institutions need to be founded on true principles of representative democracy. The principle of sovereignty needs to be redefined to reflect the rights of the human collective to security and a fair sharing in the earth’s abundant wealth. A truly cooperative global security system that enhances the security of all nations must replace the existing competitive system in which measures to enhance the security of one nation or group reduce the perceived security of all others. It must be based on the conception that law is a codification of the public conscience. International law must reflect the universal values and enlightened views of humanity rather than the negotiating power of governments. The basic premise of a global security system must be that war is illegal and must be abolished and that weapons of mass destruction are a crime against humanity.

These ideas, principles and values are intended to illustrate that solutions can be found to the entire range of challenges and opportunities presently before us. Many of these ideas may appear utopian or unachievable under the present political dispensation, precisely because they touch the root causes of current problems that we have thus far been unwilling to address. An impartial study of their implications should be sufficient to convince those with open minds that solutions are indeed possible and that implementation of a new paradigm, no matter how difficult, could quickly usher in a world far more stable, secure, prosperous and just than the world we live in today. They are intended to dispel fatalistic notion of human helplessness and point to the deeper issues that we are compelled to address, either by an enlightened evolutionary transition now or by more violent revolutionary upheavals in the future.

Ivo Šlaus and Garry Jacobs

1. Mahbubani, Kishore, The Great Convergence, 2013, p.16.

2. Ibid, p.15.

Opportunities & Challenges for the 21st Century: Need for a New Paradigm

SATURDAY, SEPT. 14, 2013

9:00 - 10:00

Session 1: Introduction

Issue: Is there any way in which humanity can realize the apparently conflicting goals of prosperity, security, sustainability and social justice?

Topics:

Characteristics of major global challenges and opportunities, stressing their interdependence and global linkages.

Historical perspective reflecting the progress made so far and the need to move beyond the present short-term, sectoral, nation-centric approach

Goals and issues that need to be answered by a new paradigm for global development.

10:15 - 12:00

Session 2: Economy & Employment

Issues: How can global food security, full employment and abolition of poverty be achieved within a decade? How can the necessary financial resources be generated and mobilized to achieve the goals of global development?

Topics:

Major challenges for achieving global prosperity

Strategies for global full employment

Need for new economic theory

International financial system – criteria for an equitable global financial system

Strategies to meet the global food challenge

Social welfare in a counter-aging society

12:00 - 1:30

Lunch

1:30 - 3:15

Session 3: Energy & Ecology

Issue: How can global living standards be raised to middle class levels without depleting or destroying the environment or depriving future generations of the capacity to sustain these achievements?

Topics:

Major challenges for achieving sustainable development

Sustainable strategies to meet global energy needs

Equitable strategies for managing global resources

The future of water – strategies to meet the challenge

Reconciling global prosperity with long term sustainability

3:45 - 5:30

Session 4: Human Capital

Issue: How can humanity fully tap the potential of a human-capital and social-capital based strategy for global development?

Topics:

Major challenges and opportunities for development of human capital

Strategy for universal primary & secondary education

World University: global strategy for higher education

The power of networks as social capital

Organizing science & technology for global development

Global strategy for a healthy humanity

6:00 - 7:30

Dinner

SUNDAY, SEPT. 15, 2013

9:00 - 12:00

Session 5: Governance & International Security

Issues: How can we evolve a global cooperative security system that permanently eliminates war and the threats posed by WMD? How can we design and implement system of global governance capable of implementing necessary measures to achieve the other five goals for the welfare and well-being of all?

Topics:

Challenges of global governance

Democratization of global institutions

Evolution of global rule of law

From competitive to cooperative security

Disarmament

12:00 - 1:30

Lunch

1:30 - 3:00

Session 6: Elements of a New Paradigm

Issue: On what essential ideas, principles, values, strategies, policies, and institutional mechanisms should the new global paradigm be founded?

Topics:

Values & Principles for a new paradigm

Institutional Mechanism

Next steps

3:30 - 5:00

Next Steps & Conclusion

Opportunities & Challenges for the 21st Century: Need for a New Paradigm

Participants

Saulo Bahia

Robert Berg

Noel Brown

Emil Constantinescu

Momir Djurovic

Mohamed El-Ashry

Louis Emmerij

Lloyd Etheredge

Jonathan Granoff

Heitor Gurgulino de Souza

Aitza Haddad

Craig Hammer

John Honig

Bob Horn

Garry Jacobs

Carl Lindgren

Michael McManus

Winston Nagan

Mila Popovic

Remus Pricopie

Ivo Slaus

Alberto Zucconi

Opportunities & Challenges for the 21st Century: Need for a New Paradigm

OVERVIEW

The World Academy of Art and Science is composed of 730 individual Fellows from diverse cultures, nationalities, and intellectual disciplines, chosen for eminence in art, the natural and social sciences, and the humanities. Established in 1960 by distinguished individuals concerned by the impact of the explosive growth of knowledge, its activities seek to address global issues related to the social consequences and policy implications of knowledge. The Academy serves as a forum for reflective scientists, artists, and scholars to discuss the vital problems of humankind independent of political boundaries or limits, whether spiritual or physical -- a forum where these problems can be discussed objectively, scientifically, globally, and free from vested interests or regional attachments, to arrive at solutions that affirm universal human rights and serve the interests of all humanity. WAAS is founded on faith in the power of original and creative ideas -- Real Ideas with effective power -- to change the world. Its motto is "Leadership in thought that leads to action."

The spirit of the Academy can be expressed in the words of Albert Einstein: "The creations of our mind shall be a blessing and not a curse to mankind." Its Fellows share the ambition (as the Founders said in their 1960 Manifesto) "to rediscover the language of mutual understanding," surmounting differences in tradition, language, and social structure which, unless fused by creative imagination and continuous effort, dissolve the latent human commonwealth in contention and conflict.

The aim of the Academy's founders was to function as "an informal WORLD UNIVERSITY at the highest scientific and ethical level, in which deep human understanding and the fullest sense of responsibility will meet."

MISSION

The World Academy of Art and Science is an association of committed individuals drawn from diverse cultures, nationalities, occupations and intellectual pursuits spanning the arts, humanities and sciences, conscious of the profound social consequences and policy implications of knowledge, and united by a common aspiration to address the urgent challenges and emerging opportunities confronting humanity today. Our mission is to promote cross-disciplinary dialogue generative of original ideas and integrated perspectives that comprehend the root causes and effective remedies for our common problems, while furthering those currents of thought and social movement that affirm the value of human dignity and equitable development. The Academy dedicates itself to the pursuit of creative, catalytic ideas that can provide to present and future generations enlightened leadership in thought that leads to effective action.

HISTORY

The idea of founding an international association for exploring major concerns of humanity in a nongovernmental context grew out of many conversations that took place among leading scientists and intellectuals in the years following World War II. Prominent among this group were people such as Albert Einstein and Robert Oppenheimer who had played a part in the development of the atomic bomb and were deeply concerned about how it and other scientific advances might be used – or misused.

This informal project took a major step forward in 1956, when a meeting – The First International Conference on Science and Human Welfare – was held in Washington, D. C. The organizers were two American scientists: Richard Montgomery Field of Princeton, who had worked for many years as chairman of an international committee on the social values of science; and John A. Fleming, former President of the International Council of Scientific Unions. At the end of the conference, participants agreed to take steps toward the formation of a World Academy, and elected an International Preparatory Committee for that purpose. Its members were: (from France) Pierre Chouard, George Laclavére and G. Le Lionnaise; (from the United Kingdom) Ritchie Calder, H. Munro Fox and Joseph Needham; and (from the United States) Robert Oppenheimer.

The Academy was formally founded (and its first officers elected) in 1960. They were: as President, Lord John Boyd Orr of Scotland; as Vice Presidents, Hermann Joseph Muller of the United States and Hugo Ostvald of Sweden; and, as Secretary General, Hugo Boyko of Israel.

Advisors to the Board

PARTNERS

HOW TO DONATE TO THE ACADEMY

The World Academy is incorporated in the State of California and Fellows elected from 86 different countries. WAAS is recognized by the US Internal Revenue Service as a tax exempt private foundation under section 501(c)(3).

CADMUS JOURNAL

Cadmus is a journal for fresh thinking and new perspectives that integrate knowledge from all fields of science, art and humanities to address real-life issues, inform policy and decision-making, and enhance our collective response to the challenges and opportunities facing the world today.

ERUDITIO E-JOURNAL

Eruditio is the electronic journal of the World Academy of Art & Science. The vision of the Journal complements and enhances the World Academy's focus on global perspectives in the generation of knowledge from all fields of legitimate inquiry.

The Journal also mirrors the World Academy's specific focus and mandate which is to consider the social consequences and policy implications of knowledge in the broadest sense. It is a multidisciplinary forum focused on the social consequences and policy implications of all forms of knowledge on a global basis.

PAPERS BY CATEGORY

BOOKS

The Security & Sustainability Guide

A 250-page “Interim Draft” PDF of The S&S Guide, a project of the World Academy of Art & Science, will be available for limited distribution free of charge. It reflects the critical fact that sustainability and security are both essential and can only be achieved in concert. The Guide is incomplete, but the compilers believe that, even in its current state, many will find it useful for illuminating many of the most serious problems facing humanity under the broad, overlapping categories of “Security” (weapons proliferation, terrorism, cyber-attacks, economic and food insecurity, human rights, peacemaking, crime and corruption, inadequate infrastructure, etc.) and “Sustainability” (climate change, biodiversity loss, pollution, energy, agriculture, population growth, cities, oceans, forests, vulnerability to disasters, green economics and nance, etc.)

TRANS-DISCIPLINARY FOUNDATION COURSES

The world we live in presents challenges and opportunities beyond the capacity of even the strongest, most developed nation or group of nations to effectively address without working in concert with the rest of humanity. Peace and security, climate and environmental management, immigration and... READ MORE

Democracy is under siege. Traditional bastions of liberal democracy are faltering. Young democracies are reverting to their authoritarian pasts. Populism, corporatization of the media, fake news, retreat from globalism, oligarchy, corruption and other perils are undermining fairness, effectiveness and truthfulness. Just when it appeared that the world was converging on a universal set of values and standards for governance at the national and international level, fundamental questions are being raised regarding the viability and sustainability of democratic institutions. Recent events raise fundamental questions regarding the institutions of governance and also about the underlying social, psychological, cultural and evolutionary processes that determine how these institutions function.

Is democracy in its current form really the most viable and effective system of governance? Are human beings sufficiently rational and selfless to govern themselves justly and effectively? Is the future of democracy at the national level compatible with the persistence of non-democratic institutions at the international level? By what process has the distribution of social power shifted from army, monarchy, aristocracy to democracy and how is that process likely to evolve further in future? To what extent are the institutional problems confronting democracy today reflections of underlying social, psychological and cultural factors and processes? What proven and potential safeguards and remedies are available to address the failures and insufficiencies of contemporary democracies? Is democracy the best possible system or merely a stage in the evolution of governance toward something more stable, an effective and equitable system?

Mind is humanity's highest developed instrument for seeking knowledge. It is the master tool that we use to comprehend the present, remember the past, and anticipate and plan for the future. From the act of striking two flints together to create fire to combining strings of 1s and 0s to design the code for supercomputers, mind has enabled humanity to create remarkable technologies and organized global institutions. The mind is the unifying foundation on which humanity’s entire social evolution is based. To understand this vital instrument better, the World Academy of Art & Science and World University Consortium have launched a ground-breaking project to explore Mind, Thinking and Creativity. A greater understanding of the nature of mind, its ways of knowing, the limits to thinking and rationality, mind's untapped potential, the workings of creativity and genius are essential for addressing the challenges confronting humanity today.

In April 2016 WAAS and WUC, along with partnering organizations IACP, IUC, DHUC, and MSS organized a four-day roundtable on Mind, Thinking and Creativity 2016 at Dubrovnik, Croatia for to explore fundamental questions. The meeting was attended by experts from different fields of natural and social science, including medicine, neuroscience, engineering, psychology, sociology, economics, law, and philosophy. Video recordings, presentations and papers for the roundtable are available here. The enthusiastic interest generated by the Dubrovnik meeting spurred efforts of WAAS and the World University Consortium to commence work on a on-line course on this subject which is now underway. A report on last year's meeting including videos and presentations was included in the Academy's July 2016 newsletter.

Roundtable 2 -- November 2017 at Dubrovnik

The second roundtable on Mind, Thinking & Creativity is being conducted by the World University Consortium, the World Academy of Art & Science, the Mother's Service Society, Person-Centered Approach Institute, Dag Hammarskjöld University College of International Relations and Diplomacy and the Inter-University Centre from November 6-8, 2017 at Inter-University Centre, Dubrovnik, Croatia.

A Post-Graduate Certificate Course in Human-Centered Economics will be conducted by the World Academy of Art & Science, the World University Consortium, The Mother's Service Society, Person-Centered Approach Institute, Dag Hammarskjöld University College of International Relations and Diplomacy and Inter-University Centre, Dubrovnik, Croatia from Feb 1-Feb 3,2017 at Inter-University Centre, Dubrovnik, Croatia.

The multidimensional challenges confronting humanity today are human-made and can be changed by a change in thought and action. Contemporary economic thought is built on a mind-frame that originated prior to the Industrial Revolution when scarcity of goods in a world of abundant resources was the primary concern, economic growth was considered synonymous with human welfare, and impact of humanity on the environment was completely ignored. Without challenging obvious flaws in existing theory, it will be not be possible to significantly alter current policies and practices.

The overall aim of the course is to (a) demonstrate why mainstream neo-classical economic theory is inappropriate for dealing with the global challenges of the c.21st, and (b) explore alternative approaches for achieving ecologically sustainable, human-centered development and welfare for all.

This course will present the findings of a five year research program of the World Academy of Art & Science and the on-going work of the New Economic Theory working group. It will harness the best available ideas and practices on human-centred, sustainable economy to create informative, authoritative and compelling educational and communication tools with the power to challenge and alter university level education in Economics, public policy, business decisions, media coverage and general public opinion regarding how the world economy should and can work for the betterment of all humanity.

A Post-Graduate Certificate Course in Social Power, Empowerment & Social Evolution will be conducted by the World Academy of Art & Science, the World University Consortium, The Mother's Service Society, Person-Centered Approach Institute, Dag Hammarskjöld University College of International Relations and Diplomacy and Inter-University Centre, Dubrovnik, Croatia from Oct 31-Nov 4, 2016 at Inter-University Centre, Dubrovnik, Croatia.

Humanity lives in a time of unprecedented capacity for accomplishment in every field of social life. Never before have we possessed power of this magnitude for good or for evil. Never before has power been so widely distributed within society. Democracy, law, human rights, science, technology, education and many other forms of social organization have generated immense power. Society governs the possession and exercise of this power through formal structures and institutions, such as law and human rights, as well as through both legitimate and extra-legal informal mechanisms including status, wealth, popularity, political influence and corruption. The distribution of power in its various forms powerfully impacts on the functioning of the economy, political system, educational, scientific, religious and and other social institutions, and on the overall productivity, strength, integrity, harmony and welfare of society. This transdisciplinary course will explore the sources, expressions, determinants and consequences of the creation, distribution and exercise of social power in its various expressions in politics, economy, society and culture and its consequences for the evolution of society as a whole.

Mind is humanity’s highest developed instrument for seeking knowledge. It is an instrument with remarkable capabilities and characteristic limitations. It is ironic that we invest so little time in education and scientific endeavor trying to understand the nature of mental knowledge and the character of the mental processes by which we arrive at it. The objective of this course is to arrive at an understanding of the inherent limits to rationality and mental ways of knowing, as well as the extraordinary creative and intuitive processes by which mind transcends those limitations and tends toward genius.

Thinking is the activity by which mind associates, organizes, coordinates and integrates information, thoughts and ideas. Creative thinking is the process by which mind extends the boundaries of existing thought and knowledge to connect, reconcile and unify previously unconnected or contradictory perspectives. This course will explore the characteristics of mental knowledge and thought processes, types of thinking, the character of rational thought, the mental and social construction of knowledge, deep thinking, creativity and genius. Rather than focus on abstract philosophical concepts, it will apply this knowledge to understand both the sources of humanity’s prolific mental creativity, the characteristic problems it confronts due to irresolvable conflicts and contradictions between mental perspectives, and their resolution in different fields of natural and social science, public policy, collective and individual behavior.

A Post-Graduate Certificate Course in Future Education was conducted by the World Academy of Art & Science, the World University Consortium, The Mother's Service Society, Person-Centered Approach Institute, Dag Hammarskjöld University College of International Relations and Diplomacy and Inter-University Centre, Dubrovnik, Croatia from September 21-23, 2015 at Inter-University Centre, Dubrovnik, Croatia.

Education is our best hope for a better future. Emergence of a new paradigm in education can radically abridge the time required for humanity to address critical issues related to economy, governance, ecology and life-style. Education is the best known instrument for ensuring universal human rights, promoting democracy, enhancing productivity and protecting the environment.There is urgent need to evolve a new paradigm in education appropriate to the needs of the 21st century. Closing the gap between social needs and educational capabilities is essential for addressing pressing challenges confronting humanity today. A review of education today makes evident that there is enormous scope for improving and developing the educational system. Whatever its current limitations in terms of inadequate coverage, quality and content, the means and potential exist for dramatically enhancing humanity’s individual and collective performance in virtually all spheres of our social existence by realistic, achievable improvements in education. We need a new paradigm in education capable of more fully and effectively developing the latent capacities of our youth.

A Post-Graduate Certificate Course in Essence of Effective Leadership was conducted by the World Academy of Art & Science, the World University Consortium, The Mother's Service Society, Person-Centered Approach Institute, Dag Hammarskjöld University College of International Relations and Diplomacy and Inter-University Centre, Dubrovnik, Croatia from March 31 to April 3, 2015 at Inter-University Centre, Dubrovnik, Croatia.

This course explored the characteristics common to leaders in business, politics, civil society, science, arts, professions and education and examined methods by which these characteristics can be consciously developed by individuals. The presentations consist of theory, practical strategies, and a wide range of examples drawn from biography, history, management, and literature from movies illustrating the principles under discussion. Apart from the presentations, our faculty interacted with participants to bring home the theoretical significance and practical relevance of the material.

The Individual is the catalyst of all social progress, the source of creativity, innovation, new ideas and new initiatives. The individual is the genetic source of human diversity. The entrepreneur, inventor, social reformer, revolutionary leader, original thinker and creative artist are a few of individuality's expressions. Yet how little we understand about the characteristics of true individuality, the ways in which it expresses, the means for developing it, and the means for realizing real individuality in one’s own life.

History demonstrates that individuals have the power to change the world. This course explored the relationship between personality and accomplishment. It examined the role of Individuality and Values in personal achievement, growth of personality and social progress drawing on evidence from Management Science, History, Psychology and Literature. It explored the relationship between creative individuals and society searching for insights into the principles and process that govern successful human initiatives and their consequences in various fields of life.

The course was intended for both students and practitioners in all fields interested in advancing theoretical understanding and practical approaches to promote the development of entrepreneurship, individuality, creativity, original thinking and other forms of social innovation. It explored the role of the individual in development of society, elucidated the characteristics of true individuals, the source of their amazing power for accomplishment and the process by which they act as catalysts of social innovation. While the presentation was academic, the objective was to impart original insights and practical knowledge for personal growth and individuation.

Today humanity is confronted by a plethora of serious challenges – political, economic, legal, social, cultural, psychological and ecological. These challenges are complex, interrelated, and global in reach. They are a reflection of the inadequacy of current institutions and policies and at a deeper level the inadequacy of current knowledge. They defy comprehension and resolution based on the prevailing principles of social science. The specialized knowledge developed by separate disciplines is inadequate to deal with the increasingly complex interdependencies of the real world. Knowledge needs to evolve to keep pace with the evolution of society.

The evolution of a complex, highly integrated global society necessitates the development of a more comprehensive and integrated science of society. The division into various specialized fields has been a useful mental strategy for the development of the social sciences, leading to significant advances in all fields – knowledge which needs to be preserved and enhanced by future developments. Yet it is increasingly evident that a more comprehensive and integrated approach is now required. As society evolves, its different functions develop greater complexity. At the same time they become more closely and complexly interlinked and interdependent on one another. Economy today is highly dependent on the political system and laws governing the distribution and enforcement of power in society, legal concepts regarding ownership of property and human rights, public institutions responsible for the creation and management of money, rules for commerce between nations, public policies influencing income and wealth distribution, processes that determine collective decision-making, public investment in education and training, and social expectations regarding economy and the future, etc. A recent announcement by the White House of an ‘intention’ to examine measures to discourage shifting of US firms to tax havens overseas resulted in a 10% fall in market value for several large firms.

Strategic Planning Committee Program Framework

Being a world academy composed of members drawn from the arts, social and physical sciences, humanities, business, public administration and civil society poses fundamental questions. How can WAAS distinguish itself from other national and regional academies? Is there really a common meeting point between art and science? Is there a unique contribution that WAAS can make to the world’s knowledge?

At the New Delhi General Assembly, Fellows explored facets of a new program framework developed by the Strategic Planning Committee (SPC) which seeks to answer these questions in the affirmative. Rather than distinguish itself by specializing on a particular set of disciplines, issues or geographic area, the framework is an attempt to formulate a comprehensive approach and integrated perspective of knowledge inclusive of all disciplinary perspectives and applicable to social problems and opporunities in all fields.

The core of the framework is a human-centered conception of what constitutes reliable knowing, a question posed to the SPC by Ruben Nelson. In his presentation to the GA, Garry Jacobs explained how this conception applies to WAAS’s projects on new economic theory, individuality and limits to rationality. Pushpa Bhargava pointed out that a human centered perspective naturally incorporates ecology, since the survival and full development of humanity depends on its capacity to evolve in harmony with the environment.

New Paradigm Program

Scope: The world confronts multiple crises, each of which resists current efforts at resolution and appears intractable. The environmental crisis of climate change occupied the center stage in the mid-2000s. Fears of nuclear weapons proliferation, which had subsided into complacency in the years following the end of the Cold War, suddenly surfaced with renewed intensity when Korea tested nuclear weapons and long range missiles and news surfaced of Iran’s secret nuclear weapons program in 2007.

Then the subprime mortgage crisis exploded in late 2008, spreading havoc through financial markets across the world. It was followed quickly by a sudden and substantial slowing of economic growth in OECD countries, rising levels of unemployment and most recently a crisis of excessive government debt.

In spite of the enormous attention being given to each of these issues by specialists nationally and internationally, progress on all fronts appears to be nearly at a standstill or at least far too slow to meet pressing human concerns. The times we live in are a Wild West of globalization and the unbridled, unregulated expansion of international activities threatens to destabilize and undermine the remarkable progress of the previous five decades.

This project is predicated on the assumption that each of these problems defies solution because they all represent problems that transcend the sovereign powers of the nation-state. None of them can be fully and satisfactorily addressed by nation-states acting individually. All are symptoms of the evolution of world society to a stage where concerted and coordinated global action is required to meet the collective needs of humanity for peace, security, financial stability, economic welfare and sustainable development. This project has been conceived to address the underlying and interrelated issues that all these challenges pose to global governance.

World University Consortium

The mission of World University Consortium is to evolve and promote development of accessible, affordable, quality higher education worldwide based on a human-centered approach that shifts the emphasis from specialized expertise to contextualized knowledge within a trans-disciplinary conceptual framework reflecting the complexity and integration of the real world, from teaching mastery of a field of knowledge to learning that enhances the capacity of students to think and discover knowledge for themselves, from theoretical mastery to acquisition of knowledge, skills and values relevant to each individual’s personal development and career – an educational system better suited to develop the full potentials of social personality and individuality for productive engagement, social welfare and psychological well-being. The objectives are:

Identify global best practices and develop effective global models and strategies to improve accessibility, affordability, quality, innovation and relevance in higher education appropriate to the needs of the 21st century.

Develop innovative, open learning systems and more effective models that extend the reach of quality higher education to people of all age groups globally.

Explore new models of online and hybrid delivery systems designed to facilitate learning through teacher-student and student-student interaction.

Enhance the learning process through research, development and application of advanced instruments for measurement and evaluation of educational processes.

NEW ECONOMIC THEORY

A multidisciplinary group from the World Academy of Art & Science and the Club of Rome are leading a quest for a new human-centered theory of economics that reflects recent changes resulting from the emergence of a service-based economy, globalization, rising social aspirations and changing values, and is integrated with political, social, ecological, technological, and cultural factors from which it is inseparable.

TRANS-DISCIPLINARY DIALOGUE ON MIND, THINKING AND CREATIVITY

Mind is humanity’s highest developed instrument for seeking knowledge. It is an instrument with remarkable capabilities and characteristic limitations. It is ironic that we invest so little time in education and scientific endeavor trying to understand the nature of mental knowledge and the character of the mental processes by which we arrive at it.

The objective of this project is to arrive at an understanding of the inherent limits to rationality and mental ways of knowing, as well as the extraordinary creative and intuitive processes by which mind transcends those limitations and tends toward genius.

PROGRAM ON GLOBAL EMPLOYMENT CHALLENGE

Access to employment is the most essential requirement for providing economic security to the world’s burgeoning population.

This interdisciplinary dialogue explores theoretical and practical aspects of the global employment challenge, including its demographic, economic, legal, political, psychological dimensions as well as linkages with the international financial crisis, social stability, and terrorism.

EVOLUTION OF INDIVIDUALITY

Individuality is the crown of human evolution and the catalyst for social progress, yet there are very different conceptions of what constitutes true individuality, the relationship between the individual and society, and whether humanity is inevitably evolving toward higher levels of individuality.

This project will explore the essential nature of individuality, the social and cultural factors that foster it, its role in social development, its myriad expressions in the original thinker, creative artist, political leader, entrepreneur, inventor and social innovator, and the means available to society to foster it.

GLOBAL RULE OF LAW

The evolution of international law and human rights represent crucial threads in the progressive development of global rule of law.

This project will explore the relationship between the social, political and legal dimensions of global rule of law in an effort to frame the boundaries of a wider approach to the evolution of global governance. Emphasis will be place to re-examining the concept of national sovereignty and the common rights of humanity in an increasingly globalized world.

NEW SCIENCES

In 2013 WAAS launched a project to explore important developments in recently emerging fields of science, with e-conferences on the Science of Networks and the Science of Complexity. The project involves an application of concepts and tools from the new sciences relevant to address the global challenges confronting humanity today and to the evolution of a transdisciplinary science of society.

PROGRAM ON ABOLITION OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS

The devastating consequences of nuclear war and the potential destructive applications of science and technology were paramount concerns among Albert Einstein, Bertrand Russell, Robert Oppenheimer, Joseph Rotblat and others which led to the founding of the World Academy in 1960.

Nuclear disarmament is a sine qua non for effectively addressing other issues of global important – terrorism, financial stability, unemployment, poverty, climate change, democratization of the UN and other aspects of global governance. In recent years, the Academy has conducted numerous conferences, seminars and workshops and collaborating with other organizations in an effort to promote concrete steps toward immediate and total global nuclear disarmament.

The Security & Sustainability Guide

A 250-page “Interim Draft” PDF of The S&S Guide, a project of the World Academy of Art & Science, will be available for limited distribution free of charge. It reflects the critical fact that sustainability and security are both essential and can only be achieved in concert. The Guide is incomplete, but the compilers believe that, even in its current state, many will find it useful for illuminating many of the most serious problems facing humanity under the broad, overlapping categories of “Security” (weapons proliferation, terrorism, cyber-attacks, economic and food insecurity, human rights, peacemaking, crime and corruption, inadequate infrastructure, etc.) and “Sustainability” (climate change, biodiversity loss, pollution, energy, agriculture, population growth, cities, oceans, forests, vulnerability to disasters, green economics and nance, etc.)